Neil Cross has long been a fine crime writer, and with his creation of Luther – which starts very soon on BBC1 – he’s developed into a fine screenwriter, too. Now the BBC has released details of a new six-part crime drama created by Cross that’s set in a post-apocalyptic world. Hard Sun will be broadcast in 2017, and who knows? We might all be living in a post-apocalyptic world by then. More details after the jump.

Hard Sun will feature detectives Elaine Renko and Robert Hicks, partners and enemies, seek to enforce the law and protect their loved ones in a world that every day slips closer to certain destruction.

Neil Cross had this to say about his new project:

“Imagine the world you see when you look out your window… except it’s been given a death sentence. This isn’t science fiction. This is the real world. There’s no hero to come save us; no contingency plan. We’ve got five years.

This is the world of Hard Sun… and the world of Elaine Renko and Robert Hicks.

What’s it like, trying to keep order, trying to enforce the law in a city that, day by day, slips closer to certain destruction? How do you get up in the morning? How do you get out of bed and leave your family and go out there, putting your own life at risk?

And what about the predators? What about the murderers, the rapists, the thieves? What about the psychopaths, the religious nuts, the cult leaders, the serial killers?

Who among them would fear a prison sentence, in a world like this? Who among them would fear legal consequences? What does a life sentence even mean, any more?

What’s the point of justice in the face of Armageddon?

I’ve had Renko and Hicks and their world rattling round my head for a while now. I’m incredibly happy that, like me, they’ve found their home at the BBC.”